- EAN staff is available when our office is closed to help you manage personal crisis or traumatic events in the workplace. Call our office at 828-252-5725 and press ‘0’ to reach our crisis management team member by phone.
This is an ongoing content series on the current EAN website. We have set it up again here so you can continue to use it (if you like.)
Q. My employee’s father died of COVID-19 last fall, and there was no real funeral. She appears depressed, and some days not very functional. Friends are worried because she was previously treated for drug addiction and is now drinking. How should I approach EAP referral?
A. Consult with the EAP when employee situations are compounded by multiple issues, like this one is. If your employee is drinking now but had previously been treated for drug addiction, then she is considered to be relapsed. Addictive disease patients in recovery are directed to abstain from alcohol and psychoactive drugs as part of their recovery program. If your employee is no longer an EAP client, encourage her to self-refer for the sadness and the difficulties she is having on the job. Many people experience a phenomenon known as prolonged grief disorder (PGD). This is a recognized condition that can result from the inability to participate in a normal bereavement and grief process. If her ability to function at work diminishes, consider more formal steps to encourage EAP participation.
Q. Complaints and problems that employees seem to “drop on my desk” are the part of my job that I like least of all. Sometimes I snap at employees when they walk in and “deliver” me problems. How do I better manage this process for less stress and so I feel like the boss, not a support desk?
A. Show supervisees how to implement a process for bringing problems to you that maximizes their opportunity to solve problems on their own and properly conveys only the problems needing your attention. Here’s a possible start to a dialog: “When bringing problems to me, please 1) share the impact the problem is having on your work situation or work unit. 2) Share with me what you’ve done or tried to do in order to solve the problem. If it did not work, let me know why. 3) Give me a recommendation. 4) If there are options, share them, but be specific so I do not try a solution that won’t work. 5) Let me know which solution you think is the best one and why. 6) Offer ideas for how to go about implementing the solution. This is one approach for teaching a process to solve more problems faster, but avoid being so strict that employees don’t come to you at all.
Q. EAPs help resolve personal problems such as stress, depression, work-place conflicts, and sub-stance abuse. What about the EAP’s ability to teach critical skills, like better listening? That’s what my boss recently said I should consider improving.
A. The history of employee assistance programs has caused them to naturally be associated with resolving personal problems, but EAPs can offer other types of help. Further, EA professionals also specialize. Some may have expertise in organizational development, while others are seasoned pros at addiction recovery, imparting supervisory skills, conflict resolution, parenting, and more. Meet with the EAP, but zero in on the aspect of the skill about which you are trying to be more efficient. For example, regarding listening skills, key aspects include active listening, summarizing, using empathy, following up, running meetings, listening to learn, listening to evaluate and analyze, listening to understand feelings and emotions, and more. What about your listening skills are you trying to improve? Are you a good listener but experiencing problems that interfere with listening? Meeting with the EAP can help you explore these questions, too. It might lead you to a different approach or solution for improving listening skills.
Q. My employee is a hothead, but most of us are used to it. When does anger become a performance issue?
A. Consider whether your employee’s anger management problem is a serious performance issue right now. Don’t reinforce toxic behavior by adapting to it or encouraging others to do the same. Coping with inappropriate displays of anger enables the employee and may encourage his or her bad behavior to grow worse. You can bet that not all employees feel this behavior is benign or that it should not be addressed by management. Anger is associated with violence in the workplace, and the anger issue you describe might benefit from a professional evaluation. So, the behavior is a risk issue. Could an explosive incident in the future lead to some tragedy? If the behavior creates an offensive and hostile work environment, which it does by virtue of the need to adapt to it, take steps to have the employee correct the behavior by referring him or her to the EAP.
Q. Can the EAP sit with me and my employee to serve as a mediator in a conflict we are having about performance, strategy, and my expectations for what needs to be done in her position?
A. There is nothing to preclude the EAP from mediating issues; however, success in getting the changes you want depends much on the nature of the conflict you are experiencing. Is the conflict only about agreeing on a work unit strategy, or does it concern the employee making changes regarding performance? Whereas the former may be useful and lead to a satisfactory outcome, the latter could reinforce your employee’s unwillingness to make changes. Why? The nature of mediation naturally gives, and will be perceived by your employee as allowing, options and choices. In effect, it elevates the worker’s role in deciding whether change will occur at all. Meet alone with the EAP first. Discuss your goal, and examine whether it is your need to be more assertive or some other refinement in the position’s duties that lies at the heart of the conflict.
Q. I notice some firefighters are resistance to self-referral to the EAP. Confidentiality concerns a few, but others think asking for help will tarnish their macho image. How can I help reduce this resistance?
A. To overcome myths and misconceptions about EAPs and getting help, mention the EAP to your personnel often, and have periodic awareness programs arranged by or with EAP staff. Encourage use of the program. Making the EAP “ever present” and attempt to have personnel see it as part of the “fire culture.” This will have significant impact on reducing resistance to using the program. In effect, this type of visibility has a marketing effect that normalizes the idea of getting help. Regarding your role as a supervisor, be careful about language. If you are involved in a “bad call” or a horrific event, model reaching out to personnel, follow critical incident stress management protocols, and don’t make statements that reinforce the macho mentality among personnel, like “Suck it up, it’s your job.” Be aware of the role alcohol plays among personnel, and how it is used to manage stress within your department. Discuss with the EAP strategies that educate about and encourage healthy behaviors for managing stress.
Q. There are hundreds of resources on becoming a better supervisor, but who has time to read this stuff and incorporate it into one’s supervision style? I think supervisors often must muddle through with trial and error until we learn how to be supervisors, right?
A. Much supervisory skill development is by trial and error, but a key growth strategy is also mentorship, formal and informal, early in one’s career .A recent study showed that those who spent a few quiet moments each morning thinking about leadership and reflecting on their experiences, strengths, and goals for improvement actually advanced their leadership abilities. Take a look at the following questions that study participants were asked to consider. Participate in your own study with the same questions and see if your leadership skills advance. Ask: What are some of your proudest leadership moments? What qualities do you have that make you a good leader or will in the future? Think about who you aspire to be as a leader, then imagine everything has gone as well as it possibly could in this leader role. What does that look like? What effect do you want to have on your employees? Do you want to motivate them? Inspire them? Identify and develop their talents? What skills or traits do you have that can help with those goals? Source:www.news.ufl.edu/2021/04/best-leader-self/
Q. What is “upward bullying”?
A. Upward bullying is a term that refers to subordinates who treat bosses with disrespect. Behaviors of “upward bullies” may include inappropriately correcting the boss, nagging the boss to obtain something they desire, or intimidating the boss in some manner to be the one who has the power and control in the supervisor-supervisee relationship. Regaining control in a effective and appropriate authority by leveraging your assertiveness skills and obtaining assurances from next-level managers that your efforts will be supported. Often upward bullying employees establish relationships with next-level supervisors. These relationships may then be used to empower a bully’s willingness to take more risks with inappropriate communications with the boss, as they may believe consequences for their behavior are unlikely given their friendship with this other manager. If you believe you have lost control of the supervisory relationship with your subordinate employee, contact the EAP to work on a plan for reestablishing an appropriate balance of the power in the relationship.
Q. On Memorial Day party I saw my DOT employee at a distance smoking a joint. He has a regulated, safety-sensitive position. I pretended not to notice, but now that I am back at work, I must act on our policy and refer to testing. I fear this is going to cause quite an upset.
A. Your employee may be upset about a confrontation, but it is he who placed you in the position of having to make a referral for a reasonable suspicion test. Being friends and socializing with employees happens with great frequency but also with risk, because a “dual relationship” of friend and boss may potentially interfere with one’s ability to act, as in this case, on a drug-free workplace policy. Smoking marijuana will cause an employee to test positive for up to 30 days. If you saw a worker smoking pot in the company parking lot, you would also be obligated to act. You have personal knowledge of drug use, so do not allow a potentially toxic employee to risk the lives of others. Still anxious and nervous? Speak to the EAP if you have time before the next work shift so you can process your decision and gain fortitude to act.
Q. I referred my employee to the EAP, but he says he won’t go because his neighbors work in the same office building and he might get spotted, thereby losing his confidentiality. This sounds like a good excuse. What can I do to persuade him to go?
A. EAPs are familiar with these unusual circumstances that may cause a few employees to be hesitant about visiting the program office. Phone the EAP and discuss this situation. The EAP will then tell you what to recommend. Some EAPs will discuss personal problems with an employee over the phone; others may meet select employees at a different location or meet after hours with the worker to decrease the likelihood of his or her crossing paths with someone who would possibly recognize the person’s reason for being on the premises.
FrontLine Supervisor is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be specific guidance for any particular supervisor or human resource management concern. URLs are case-sensitive. For specific guidance on handling individual employee problems, consult with your EApprofessional. © 2021 DFA Publishing &Consulting, LLC
